Greetings from the zoo.

Sometimes, we have brilliant brainstorms at the most unlikely times. This happened to my parents and me a week ago when we were at the local cat show and came upon a display for the SPCA. And they had brought cats with them, neatly lined up in a row of cages on tables in the hallway. And one of these cats is now sitting on my computer desk, following the cursor on the screen as if it were a living object and trying to "help" me by adding his own typed comments.

I should add that we are already an animal-loving household. We have our basset hound, Marti, who is blind from glaucoma. She is about 11, and she was the queen of the household until Dan the Man came along. Dan the Man is our first cat. He is also an SPCA find. He came to live with us about four years ago to keep Marti company after my mom started working longer hours. They coexisted peacefully for several years, basically ignoring each other. And now Bucky has come along to upset the household.

A friend of mine immediately asked if we had named Bucky after the slightly sadistic cat in the comic strip "Get Fuzzy." As major fans of this daily strip, we did name our cat in this Bucky's honor. A small part of us worried we were cursing ourselves and insuring that the new cat would be crazy. But we are nothing if not daring in this house, so Bucky he has become.

Everyone is getting along pretty well. Once in a while, Bucky gets too close to Danny, and there is hissing involved. Sometimes Marti stumbles into Bucky's path and gets a swat on the nose. And now and again, Bucky finds Danny's food or Marti's food lying about and helps himself. However, when it's time for a nap, he finds the closest human, climbs up on his or her chest, tucks his head under his or her chin, and starts purring for all he's worth. And that's when we know that Bucky is one of us now...and this is his home.